Old Friends

A/N: Ok, so I've took into consideration some of your suggestions and I'm gonna try put something together. Hopefully you guys like it!

"Why does this place always have to be so busy?" Echoed a man's voice as he carried drinks for his friends to the table they were sat at in the loud night club. It was their local but he didn't know why. It was always over crowded and extremely loud.

His tattooed hands dropped the drinks for his friends on the table as he sat back down on his stool. He never even drank but was always dragged along with his two annoying friends, Dean Ambrose- the blonde, already drunk, leering across the table at the waitress friend that sat across from him- and Seth Rollins- the half blonde, half black haired man who was looking up at the TV screen at the football the club was showing. This was just a usual Saturday night.

"Why do you always gotta moan?" Dean asked, picking up his beer and looking across at Punk, a nickname that he had been given from his early upbringing. Phillip Jack Brooks was his name but very rarely did anyone use his real name. He was Punk to everyone. His sleeves and full chest tattoos alongside his passion for punk rock music and the scrawny lip ring he had in was all a contributing factor in the reason behind the nickname.

"I'm not moaning." Punk said, "I'm observing." He said casually.

"Well observe silently." Dean said with drunken eyes as Punk just shook his head.

"Go get some nuts." Seth tapped Punk.

"I'm sorry, but did you two suddenly get your legs chopped off overnight?" He turned to them both. If he wasn't driving them here, he was getting their rounds of drinks in and now nuts? Of all things?

"C'mon, man. I haven't ate all day. Do you want one drunk guy to take home or two?" Seth said.

"You think nuts are gonna soak up the amount of alcohol your drinking? Nuts?" Punk raised his eyebrows as Seth nodded, "Fine. Fucking fine." Punk shook his head, walking back over to the bar, pushing and shoving by people impatiently.

"You ok, sunshine?" The young waitress smiled over to him.

"Packet of nuts, Chrissy." Punk said. They'd been coming here for so long he knew the waitresses names off by heart.

"Salted, roasted? What type?" The blonde waitress asked.

"Any. Just get the nearest pack." He said as Chrissy just laughed. She knew the boys as locals. They were funny guys. A part of her always felt good that there was one sober guy in the club if anything was to kick off.

"2.20." Chrissy smiled as she placed the nuts down, taking the money from him as he nodded with thanks, watching her walk off to the other side of the bar to attend to more customers.

He placed his wallet back in his back pocket of his jeans, fumbling around when he overheard beside him a collective amount of pleads to be left alone. He turned his head as he seen the young girl, clearly in distress as she asked the man hovering over her to leave her alone.

In any other case he would have kept his nose out of other people's business, but drunken men thinking they could come onto any and every women had always been a pet peeve of his.

"C'mon pal." Punk tapped the guy on the shoulder, "She said leave her alone." Punk said as simply as he could.

"And who are you?" The guy laughed, turning around and suddenly sizing up Punk, looking him up and down, gulping and then turning back to the girl sitting on the bar stool, "Whatever… she ain't worth it anyway." The man spat, leaving his drink and hopping off the stool, letting Punk get a better glimpse of the woman he was harassing. He knew he'd seen her face before, he just couldn't put a name to her or a setting.

"Like saving damsels in distress, do you?" She asked as he tried his hardest to place her in his mind, "What?" She laughed a little.

"I feel like I know you." Punk shook his head as the girl just grinned.

"Nice try." She leaned her elbow on the bar, "Did you just shoo him off so you could jump in?" She smirked a little, looking over at him as he shook his head.

"No." Punk scoffed. Now he felt like he should have just left the bitch to deal with that tragic guy, "Shouldn't you be drinking if you're sitting at a bar?" He looked at her glass of orange juice, feeling the need to shoot back at her snidy comments.

"Says the man holding a bag of salted nuts." She raised her eyebrows.

He definitely knew that quick sense of humour she had. He definitely knew her. He just couldn't figure out where from.

"April." The girl said, "That's my name. Maybe you can tell me how you think you know me." She said.

April… April… Ap- Suddenly he remembered.

"AJ?" He shook his head, "Mendez?" He remembered as she raised he eyebrows and sat up a little. Maybe he really did know her from somewhere, but she had no idea who he was, "Punk." He placed his hand on his chest, "Phil Brooks… we grew up in the same orphanage together." He said as she raised her eyebrows.

"Punk?" She shook her head with confusion, "You look so different." She said. She couldn't believe it was him. He'd changed. A lot.

"And so do you." Punk admitted.

"Well I should hope so. I'm not sixteen anymore." She smiled, remembering that was what age she last seen him, "It's a small world." She said as he sat down on the stool next to her. She couldn't believe the one friend she made in her orphanage, she had bumped into again after all this time.

"It really is." Punk nodded, "How… How have you been?" He asked politely. He really didn't recognise her because she had turned out to be drop dead beautiful. Not that she wasn't before. She was a little more nerdy back when he knew her.

"I've been ok." She said, "What about you? You still with your usual partners in crime?" She asked as he nodded, watching him point over to Dean and Seth who were messing around with each other, causing her to chuckle, "I see they haven't grown up much." She said.

"Not at all." Punk said, "So what are you up to these days?" He asked her. He'd known her since he was around ten or eleven. They'd grown up in the same orphanage. He knew her as the funny, geeky girl in room 46, now she was a gorgeous woman drowning her sorrows in a bar apparently.

"I'm a nurse." She smiled, "That's as exciting as it gets." She said, "What about you? Still chasing your dream of being a boxer?" She grinned a little as he laughed.

"Would you believe I am?" He smiled a little.

"Oh, definitely. I was always a fan of your punches." She nodded as he laughed.

"I did throw a lot of punches back ten." He said as she smiled.

"I can't believe I haven't seen you in ten years." She shook her head, "Are you living near by?" She asked.

"A few blocks from here." He said, "What about you?"

"Just a few minutes along the road." She told him as he nodded.

They sat talking to each other for at least another hour. They had so much to catch up on. Punk really didn't expect to bump into an old friend such as herself. They really were close to one another. They were like a little pact back in the orphanage, her, him, Seth and Dean. Given the circumstances they were in, all they had was each other. It was strange to see each other again, grown up and out in the real world.

"I really should get going. I'm up at 6 tomorrow for work." She admitted, it totally slipping his mind to ask why she was even here in the first place. But then again, that wasn't his business.

"Alright… well I guess I'll see you around then. It was nice to see you again." He said as she nodded.

"You too." She said, walking out of the club as he watched her all the way until she disappeared.

"Chrissy, you got a pen?" He asked the waitress who passed him over a pen from behind the bar as he quickly began to scribble on a napkin he'd found, rushing out the door and calling AJ down before she took off, "AJ!" He called as she turned around.

"Yeah?" AJ looked up at him.

"Here." He passed her the napkin with his number on it, "Incase you ever… want to meet up again or…" He just shrugged, not knowing what else to say as she smiled, taking the napkin and slipping it into her coat pocket.

"Goodnight, Punk." She smiled, turning around and walking off down the street as Punk smiled. He'd never seen a glow up like it. She was always a cute little thing back then, almost like a little sister, now she was was just a complete stunner.

He made his way back into the club, almost forgetting for a second that he had came here with his friends, walking over to their table where Dean was falling asleep, elbow rested on the table whilst his chin rested in the palm of his hand.

"Nuts?" Seth said drunkenly, "You… you've been gone for days and you… you still don't have my nuts?"

"I'm gonna kick you in the nuts. How does that sound?" Punk sat down on the stool, leaning over and pushing Dean's elbow away from him so his chin smacked off the table.

"Hey." Dean sat up, holding his chin, "That hurt." He moaned.

"You'll never guess who I just spoke to." He said as they both just looked at him, "You remember AJ? From the orphanage?" He asked them.

"The little girl that used to follow you around all the time?" Seth asked as Punk just raised his eyebrows, "Glasses? Short? Kinda weird." Seth scratched his head.

"Yeah. Her." Punk shook his head at the description, "Well anyway, I just spoke to her, she was up at the bar. She's gotten hot." He said.

"I don't even know who you're… who you're talking about." Dean slurred as Punk rolled his eyes.

"Of course you don't." Punk shook his head, "Drink up. Let's get out of here." He said.

The next morning, AJ, or April Jeanette Mendez on an official basis, was heading off to work. She worked at the local hospital in the emergency and accident department, which meant on a day to day basis she really did see some gruesome stuff. She hadn't aspired to be a nurse all her life. She hadn't had much encouragement to follow a dream or career as she was brought up in an orphanage, but she had swayed towards nursing as she got older and was very good at her job despite how ironic it was.

Meeting Punk last night had left a weird taste in her mouth. She didn't recognise him because he didn't look like that boy she remembered who always looked out for her and watched her. He was like a big brother to her back then, all three of them were but last night she seen him and she thought damn, look at those biceps and tattoos.

She'd had a terrible childhood, and even though he was there for a part of it, he still didn't really know her all that well. She was about nine when she first came into contact with him, he would have been 11 or 12. It was a pretty intense orphanage they grew up in. Dark halls. Forbidden rooms. Horrid hall monitors and care takers that looked after them. It wasn't easy but having them made it a little bit better.

"Room three has a broken leg and rib." AJ announced as she walked down the hospital corridor passing one of her closest and longest friends here, Paige, "I'm going for my lunch break." She announced as her black haired girl just nodded.

"When I went out earlier I brought you back a sandwich, left it by your jacket in the back of reception." She told AJ who smiled.

"Thank you, my dear." AJ smiled as Paige walked on down the corridor and into takeover AJ's work as she went on her half hour lunch break.

She walked into reception, heading into the back offices and sitting down at the table where Paige had left her a sandwich, packet of chips and a drink. She opened up the chips and dug into her jacket pocket, taking out her phone in collision with the napkin that had Punk's phone number on it, staring at it with temptation as she raised a chip to her mouth.

A/N: A little introduction to something new. Let me know what you guys think. REVIEW and let me know. There will be orphanage flashbacks soon.